Written in English for the purpose of brushing up my English skills. I'd like to make friends with someone who lives in Estonskaya, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. Frivolous comments aren't welcome on this blog.

Jan 03, 2013

Battleships: Prince of Wales and Yamato 3

Let's check the battleship the Prince of Wales. It was a huge battleship mounted with ten 14-inch guns and powerful anti-aircraft guns nicknamed "pom-pom" guns. The latter could shoot 6000 bullets per minute. She had experienced a fierce air attack from Germany and Italy 2 years before. Additionally the crew was well trained to repel the aircraft. Moreover, the name of the battleship, the "Prince of Wales" derived from the name of Edward VIII in his Crown Prince days, the elder brother of then king George VI. How proud of this battleship the Brits were. Another battleship, Repulse was alike. The commander of the fleet was Admiral Thomas Phillips who was the best veteran officer. They were unarguably the strongest in the world. They set out at past 1700 hours on Dec 8th from Singapore searching for the Japanese fleet in order to smash them. How about the Japanese side? Against the world's most powerful British fleet, Japan could only spare two old battleships, Kongo and Haruna, whose age was 27 years old. Their armaments were at most the level of cruisers. It was just like a joke. No one would believe the victory of Japan, however Japan actually survived both the Japanese-Sino and Japanese-Russo War in the same situation. That's why Britain delivered the most powerful battleships to the East. If Japan couldn't win the battle, the troops proceeding down the Malay Peninsula would be completely killed by the shortage of military necessities. Link to Next